I don’t care

I read the Times Union every day. I’ve been reading it since I arrived in town (I also read the Knickerbocker News back then), and it’s not because they publish my blog, but because I want to know what’s going on in the world and in my town. I don’t read it all, but most of it, and many days I think I should read less, for the sake of my blood pressure. The news often makes me mad…

The other day I was thinking how differently I would write a paper if I could put one out and didn’t have to worry whether anyone bought it. (We’d all do lots of things differently, I’ll bet, if we didn’t have to worry about making money.) For instance:

Environmental news – first page. Like the other day: get the money from the oil companies that’s due. Pass the expanded bottle bill. Buy small cars. Recycle everything. Turn our lifestyle around to embrace the environment. Not that I’m passionate about this or anything.

War news – condensed so I can understand it, with links to more info online if I want it. The more information there is, the more confused I get. Of course a society needs information to make decisions, blah blah, which is why I read the paper, but at this point I want short and clear. Awful to admit, isn’t it?

Financial news – ditto. I get it, things are bad. They might get better some day. It’ll take a while.

Arts – well of course we’d read more about how important the arts are, how little we pay attention to them in the USA, how badly needed they are…with links to my blog! (If I knew how to import a smiley face here I’d do it.)

Latest celebrity to get drunk or have a child or, well, do anything at all – don’t care.

Oscars – don’t care. Well, I certainly don’t care anywhere nearly as much as the daily “who’s gonna win” hype or the post-ceremony “who said what.” I quickly read who won and moved on.

What they wore to the Oscars – don’t care.

I think newspapers (okay, all media) actually shape society. Chicken or egg: do the media give people want they want, or do the media tell people what to want? If no one reported on A-Rod or Paris Hilton, would they disappear? I’ll bet they would. If environmental issues were on page one day after day, would they begin to matter more? Do we really need National Enquirer or People Magazine?

That’d be my newspaper. I’d call it What Really Matters, or The Newspaper According to DJ. Of course no one would buy it.